On October 2nd, 1955 ENIAC was retired
The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), one of the first general-purpose electronic digital computers, was officially retired on October 2nd, 1955, after nearly a decade of service since its completion in 1945. By then, its creators, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, had left to start their own company, and the women who programmed it had moved on to other projects. Nevertheless, ENIAC paved the way for modern computing, leaving an enduring legacy in the field.
Excel turns 39 today!
Excel turns 39 today, which means it’s old enough to have a midlife crisis… but still young enough to crash at the worst possible time!
Did you know that Microsoft released the first version of Microsoft Excel on the Apple Macintosh, on September 30th, 1985? If you want to learn more about the love/hate relationship of the early days of Microsoft and Apple and the dynamics of the Steve Jobs / Bill Gates relationship over the years check out Episode 25 of Season 2.
Women in STEM Cyprus Forum
Breaking the 20% proudly supports the first Women in STEM Cyprus Forum. It is a landmark event dedicated to empowering and advocating for women in STEM fields. To learn more and register visit https://womenintech-cyprus.org/
Goodbye, Lenna. It was about time for you to retire!
Terry Benzel, the Vice-President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society’s technical and conference sector, announced in a notice, “Starting 1 April, new manuscript submissions will no longer be allowed to include the Lena image.”
Honoring Our Heroines: A Special International Women's Day Tribute by "Breaking the 20%"
This International Women's Day, "Breaking the 20%" proudly celebrates the indomitable spirit and groundbreaking contributions of women in technology and computing.
Breaking the 20% Partners with Future Start-Up Founders Programme
We are thrilled to announce our partnership with the Future Start-Up Founders Programme, an empowering initiative organized by the CCS under the auspices of the Erasmus+ EU co-funded project, Femme Forward.
Howard Aiken
Howard Aiken was born on March 8, 1900. His groundbreaking work centered around the development of the Harvard Mark I, an electromechanical computer completed in 1944. This is the same machine that Grace Hopper will get to meet later in the same year that set her on the path to becoming The Queen of Code.
Elizabeth “Jake” Feinler
On March 2, 1931, "Jake" Feinler was born. She was the Network Information Systems Center director at the Stanford Research Institute. Her group operated the Network Information Center for the ARPANET as it evolved into the Defense Data Network and the Internet. Her group also created the naming registry for World Wide Web domains designation behind web addresses “.edu,” “.gov,” “.org,” “.mil” and of course dot com (.com)
Jean Jennings Bartik
Betty Jean Jennings (later Bartik) was born on December 27, 1924 and was one of six human computers chosen to work on ENIAC. She and the team taught themselves ENIAC's operation and became its (and, arguably, the world's) first programmers.
Voyager's Mission Status
Has this week's episode left you wanting to learn more about the Voyager mission? Good news, then because NASA is providing. Links to mission status and all kinds of information about the mission are in this article